At least tell us if your measurements have changed or something. I don't find scale weight by itself to tell you very much.

I did post my measurement decreases for last month. I lost 10 inches in the places that I measure. Now... I did not do days on end of tators. I came off my LC/HF and I was transitioning into starches via PHD recommendation. Then the tator thread hit so it was perfect timing. So I did a couple days of tators. Since then I have just included more tators - most daily, or start out eating tators but end up with steak for dinner.

My weight loss was like 7 lbs, which was more than the previous 3 months or more, of High Fat, Low Carb, Moderate Protein. Since the 23rd, I have lost about 7 lbs also. And the thing is, now I feel like exercising. So I am doing some form of ST daily, and I am doing Tabata 2 or 3 times. I did not feel like doing any of that before. I know I should have but the higher the fat, the lower my desire to do anything physical (and at the highest fat, I was gaining and then having to fast to get it back off) I sort of blamed it on the heat of the summer, but I did not even want to go jump in the pond with the kids.

I am in a new jean size also. I bought some boots that I tried on before but I didnt buy them because I couldnt zip them up my calves, but the other day I could. So I bought 2 new pairs And when I look down my belly, I can see ummm parts I havent seen for awhile.

I did post my measurement decreases for last month. I lost 10 inches in the places that I measure. Now... I did not do days on end of tators. I came off my LC/HF and I was transitioning into starches via PHD recommendation. Then the tator thread hit so it was perfect timing. So I did a couple days of tators. Since then I have just included more tators - most daily, or start out eating tators but end up with steak for dinner.

My weight loss was like 7 lbs, which was more than the previous 3 months or more, of High Fat, Low Carb, Moderate Protein. Since the 23rd, I have lost about 7 lbs also. And the thing is, now I feel like exercising. So I am doing some form of ST daily, and I am doing Tabata 2 or 3 times. I did not feel like doing any of that before. I know I should have but the higher the fat, the lower my desire to do anything physical (and at the highest fat, I was gaining and then having to fast to get it back off) I sort of blamed it on the heat of the summer, but I did not even want to go jump in the pond with the kids.

I am in a new jean size also. I bought some boots that I tried on before but I didnt buy them because I couldnt zip them up my calves, but the other day I could. So I bought 2 new pairs And when I look down my belly, I can see ummm parts I havent seen for awhile.

So you have added tators to your diet and stopped worrying about fat...and it is what you do for your lifestyle. Totally glad its working for you and I own a copy of the PHD too. Not really what I'm talking about though . I'm talking about those that eat ONLY tators for 14 days and lose 7-14lbs in that time. I'm talking about the mechanism of weight loss in these individuals. Fat, lean mass, or water. I think it is an important differentiation that nobody has bothered to make. We all know that glycogen depletion and water weight loss is an inherent portion of the 14lbs you may lose in the first 14 days of a VLC diet....why would you question this any less? Could it be all fat? Just wondering.

I'm an X-wrestler....honest to God I could lose 10lbs in under 6 hours if I had to. That doesn't mean its healthy OR fat that I'm loosing.

Good thread. I have been trying to 'deconstruct' the rapid weight-loss also. I went to the Perfect Health Diet website and tried to get Paul Jaminet to come here and engage. I doubt he will, but this is what he said:

A whole bunch of folks on Mark’s Daily Apple are eating potatoes for 7-14 days, nothing else allowed, and losing fat at amazing levels. Would love to get one of you guys on our thread to see what you think of our fat-busting trick. Please click link above!
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John Ashcroft November 10, 2012 at 1:27 am

That’s an interesting undertaking, and it must be manageable seeing as potatoes are surprisingly satiating.

In the past I managed to lose weight very quickly by eating loads of pasta and some beans with only mild calorie restriction, so I can believe potatoes would work too, if not better.

But I don’t think I’ll attempt again. Not out of concern of high carb but rather concern for too low fat. There’s no way very low fat can be good for digestion and nutrient absorption, barring some specific disorder. And then the hearsay about possible relations between low-fat and gallstones…

I think I’ll stick to the occasional day of high-carb (potato) feeding; that seems to stimulate the metabolism enough. I don’t really need to lose the remaining weight any faster. But good luck with that! I don’t really have any doubt that it can work for weight loss. Plus it must be damn cheap.
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Paul Jaminet November 10, 2012 at 7:39 am

Hi Tater,

It’s certainly an effective weight loss tactic. The all-potato diet does produce lipid deficiencies however, so I personally would recommend eating egg yolks and some liver with it (at a minimum). You’ll still lose weight, a little slower perhaps, but it will be healthier.

Seems he places it soley on satiety. Good point in the case of taters. I'd be interested in his response to the .5-1lb a day portion. Would the insufficient fat and nutrient uptake he seems to allude to have anything to do with it?

Could you really be forced to use body fat! and stored nutrients to compensate......or would your metabolism work at an excessive rate simply in respect to these deficits....or it could not matter at all

Please those who have google scholar...use it...i'm just shootin from the hip.

I like to think this diet hack works best for guys like me. I am about 18% body fat, my exercise is more geared toward bodyweight and play as opposed to going to the gym and lifting weights or crossfitting.

I lost 10 pounds in 14 days and didn't regain any after a month of regular eating now. I think I was eating at a big deficit and tapped directly into my fat reserves for energy. I have a few friends experimenting with this also and am seeing similar results with them.

I see NO drawbacks to doing this for 7-14 days a couple times a year to help with weight maintenance if needed.

I think that a lot of people here (myself included) have struggled with weight maintenance, weight loss, and healthy eating in general. So, we come to PB and we're introduced to something, that with individual tweaking, is sane and healthy. Animals and plants. Sane exercise. Cut the poison out of your diet: processed foods, added sugars, grains, legumes. Get some sleep. Get some sun. Play. Use your brain. We breathe a sigh of relief. This is something that is doable for the rest of our lives.

Then, one day, we go to our sane health place, and someone has the unmitigated audacity to propose a one-food plan for two weeks to crash some weight off. This isn't primal. This isn't balanced. This is right up there with the grapefruit, leek soup, etc. "diet." We get angry. Where are the animals and bugs? Where is the balance?

It's just not that big a deal. If we got lost on some wilderness hike, and we had to live on rainwater and tree bark to survive for the 10-14 days it took the EMTs to find us, we'd do it, and it wouldn't ruin our health irreparably.

The body is very adaptable. That's one of the reasons I believe in doing a high calorie day every once in awhile when doing low calorie weight loss. If it takes 10 days of potatoes (or leeks, or grapefruit, or crickets, etc.) to shock the body back into weight loss mode, so be it.

We all get our backs up when promoters of SAD put down the PB as a healthy way to eat/live. I'm not sure we should be so defensive when someone offers up a little hack that doesn't include drugs, puking, etc., as a way to jump start something that may have gotten stalled simply because we humans can adapt to almost anything.

So you have added tators to your diet and stopped worrying about fat...and it is what you do for your lifestyle. Totally glad its working for you and I own a copy of the PHD too. Not really what I'm talking about though . I'm talking about those that eat ONLY tators for 14 days and lose 7-14lbs in that time. I'm talking about the mechanism of weight loss in these individuals.

I hear ya. Yes I have added them into my lifestyle so not the same as exclusive for a week or two. Sorry I think I am still fuming over the fad diet thread and wondering why experimenting and doing something different that works for you has to be a negative. Ok, so I will bitch about that over there.

Back to this thread, I wondered also, how it compared with a fast in terms of voiding any of the traditional benefits of fasting aside from the weight loss benefit. I figured if I want those benefits, I just need to do a fast. If I want to drop a few pounds like a fast but not starve and be hungry like a fast, I will use tators.

Actually Paul was where I first got some of the stuff about reducing insulin for longevity. He is a big proponent of keeping your protein in check as well as carbs for longevity. In their book they actually state that you should be sure to eat fatty meat as to keep the fat to protein ration 2/1 and same for carbs....be sure to eat plenty of healthy fats to keep fat to carb 2/1. I dunno if they have changed their tune but the use to have a 15p/20c/65f sort of view for longevity.....and I think much of that was due to their analysis of insulin along with protien intake.

We all get our backs up when promoters of SAD put down the PB as a healthy way to eat/live. I'm not sure we should be so defensive when someone offers up a little hack that doesn't include drugs, puking, etc., as a way to jump start something that may have gotten stalled simply because we humans can adapt to almost anything.

But....but....drugs and puking was half the fun!!! Oh, ok ...I'll just eat the potatoes then.......

Actually I quite like the potato diet put in an evolutionary frame set. As to say we would have had to survive on only tubers for a small period of time. I think it actually makes the most sense when presented this way. its when you say "hey lose 14lbs in 14 days" that I start to question the mechanisms. How would such weight loss take place? Is it the sort we would seek (fat loss)? You know....that sorta thing. I'm actually starting to think sakura girl had a point about glycogen and energy depletion ....reduced caloric intake.

I dunno if they have changed their tune but the use to have a 15p/20c/65f sort of view for longevity.....and I think much of that was due to their analysis of insulin along with protien intake.

I think it is the same. And for weight loss, more like a 3 way split give or take in any direction, with no more than about 40% fat. Perfect Health Diet: Weight Loss Version | Perfect Health Diet (I am Mel towards the bottom, for Melinda, long about Oct. 3 when the light bulb finally went off and I realized I needed to get off the fat train)

He says up to 1lb of starch daily with your other foods.

I am contemplating a tator week. Or fasting week. DH wont be here so it sounds like a good time. Honestly, tators sound mo' better than CO but I thought I might should go for some housekeeping this time.